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Being a female gamer, I always wonder why the industry often forgot someone like me. There aren't many video games that really made for women.

90% of video games featuring female protagonists are in fact were never made for women such as Bayonetta and Tomb Raider for examples. While it is pretty obvious that Bayonetta was made for men and let's face the Tomb Raider(especially the new one) also made for men as well, despite the praise and recommendation.

I still play both though maybe because that's the best for a female gamer like me can have even both are just Devil May Cry and Uncharted with women. Let's not forget there are games that marketed specifically for women but let's face it, they are shounen-ai/yaoi visual novels. While they worth millions(both dollars and yen) but they had very limited appeal. Despite being a woman myself I never saw two guys kissing as sexy(sorry yaoi fangirls). Most of us who never into yaoi just stick to Sims games. Not because we love them but rather the ones which more 'universal' one.

How can I forgot about Metroid games? Maybe I was a kid in late 90's and early 2000's and so I was raised with Sony games rather than Nintendo ones.

What type of games would you consider to be made for women? Do women not like action/adventure/RPG games?

Some EA games (Mass effect, Dragon Age) fully support a female heroine with associated dialogue changes and relationship paths.

In a way there are a lot of cute little facebook/iOS/android games (such as farmville et al) which at first glance I believe took the female demographic in mind. As a long time gamer who enjoys brutal RPGs such as Dark Souls and RTS such as Starcraft, FB and mobile games cannot really keep me interested.

Developing a game that's only going to appeal to a female audience isn't particularly a good move. The majority of the gaming market is still presently comprised of men so if you completely remove that audience from the potential consumers of your title, income is going to drop dramatically.

On the flip-side, while the chances of success are higher with a game that drops the potential female audience, that's also not a very great decision because you're still negating potential consumers.

I figure most games are marketed to a gender-neutral audience and something that both men and women can potentially enjoy. If they focused on just one niche set of people, from a business standpoint it's not a very good decision because they'd be losing a substantial amount of potential profit.

Simple answer is that most hardcore gamers are male, so obviously the industry is going to spend their money directing the triple-A titles at male gamers. The numbers are skewed in the other direction for casual gamers, so it's no surprise mobile, social and indie games tend to be more aimed at both sexes or women specifically.

Honestly I'd like to see more games made for people rather than men or women. Nintendo is usually pretty good at this (emphasis on "usually" of course).

For women who fall within the range between casual and hardcore, well... we're rather underutilized. I'm closer to the hardcore end of the spectrum (but not so much as some of my male friends), and I play all sorts of games, though I'll admit that I prefer RPGs above all else.

I prefer games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect where I'm allowed to play a female character--though honestly I'd like to see more difference between the male path and the female path. I actually quite liked how different the male and female characters were in Persona 3 Portable--the Social Links were very different, for instance, as was a significant chunk of the dialogue.

Not just being a female gamer, but a lesbian gamer makes things even more awkward at times. Not too many games handle hetero relationships very well, much less homosexual ones. I should be happy Bioware even cares, though most of the romances are pretty narmy and hilariously awkward (Dragon Age Underwear Sex FTW!)

Psst... developers... I don't particularly need or want a sex scene! Might be a better move to, y'know, spend the time, money and energy writing a better romance.

What bothers me the most is games that treat femininity in ridiculously bad manner. Games like Scarlet Blade exist only for the players to watch their character's boobs bounce (and they do when the character moves, it's hilarious). There's having an attractive protagonist, and there's forgetting women are not an alien race from another planet.

Oh, and of course there's the all "there're no girls on the internet" shit.

Oh, and of course there's the all "there're no girls on the internet" shit.

I've personally always viewed that quote as saying, treat everyone online equally regardless of what you think their gender might be. It's served me well, though for some reason being nice to people and stuff got me mistaken as a girl quite a few times, especially in MMOs. Not entirely sure why.

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I was influenced by a certain group overflowing with madness and started trying to write a story. Please give it a try. Crashed into Fantasy

I'm curious to know what does women want in games. I know a few hardcore girlgamer have pretty much the same taste as guys. And a few years ago I stumble onto harvest moon community that's predominantly females, which I left quickly since it's kinda hostile to guys.

You should be able to find a lot of indie dev games on Steam for the PC; games which would appeal to both males and females. There are a lot of good indie games out there, too. And they are cheap.

Do you play Nintendo games? You have a great backlog of Nintendo games to check out if you've missed a lot of their great hits. Also, if you have a PS3, have you played Journey? A lot of people call it one of the best PS3 games (it is an indie game that released on PSN).

Indeed, I've known some real female game players (not, uh, "girl gamers") who actually play hard, swear at their foes, and can tell you about the characteristics of a skill or attribute as much as the opposite sex. They don't care if the game is normally made for men, but in the last few years (and in response to calls from women) game developers have tried to make those games gender-neutral (in my case, and in Skyrim, you can have the option to pick up armor that's "lore-friendly" and isn't sexually offending).

Joyce, I think you should not be hindered by whoever said to you that most games are "only for men"; don't be afraid, you can step forward, pick up the controller and show your stuff. There's more life than just playing The Sims.

Being a female gamer, I always wonder why the industry often forgot someone like me. There aren't many video games that really made for women.

Well, there's an interesting notion out there that says:

Spoiler:

Women do not know what they want.

So, if I were to ask the question, what would women want in a video game? I doubt that I'll ever get a straight answer. Nevertheless, the types of games that do attract women... things like apps - on smartphones, Facebook, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sa547

Indeed, I've known some real female game players (not, uh, "girl gamers") who actually play hard, swear at their foes, and can tell you about the characteristics of a skill or attribute as much as the opposite sex.

Whenever I come across a female in online gaming - like hell would I ever let up. If anything, I would treat them like any other opponent on my screen. Winning is winning, and it would not matter who you play.

The gaming industry is particularly behind in this regard... which is sad because it's not as if every other form of entertainment in the media is any shining beacon of perfection with regards to equality in representation. I've read that most protagonists are white straight boys/men because that's what most gamers can relate to and it helps drive sales... I do believe that it helps drive sales (which is more of a problem than just a state of fact for me) but the idea that people can only relate to others as long as they share the same heritage, race, sex, sexual orientation, size, shape, or background is just ridiculous to me.

I would LOVE to see games become more varied with their main characters and treat female characters as... characters. If a woman is in a prominent role, she's either a sex object or something to be protected. Usually you'll have the "one girl" rule where there's only one female protagonist in a group of men... sometimes you aren't even that lucky. Often times the only female character in the cast isn't even playable.

Femininity is also treated as some sort of fault. Anybody who likes the color pink (which shouldn't even be considered a "feminine" color in the first place but that's another issue), wears dresses/skirts, has long hair, likes accessories is almost always relegated to extra character if he/she is even playable in the first place. The most common exceptions being games that rely on characters to deepen the gameplay such as fighting games (BlazBlue has Rachel, Platinum, Amane / Tekken has Lili, Xiaoyu, Miharu, Alisa, Jun / Soul Calibur has Amy, Leixia, Phyrra / King of Fighters has Athena, Momoko, Kula / Project Justice with Yurika, Momo / Street Fighter has Karin, Ingrid, R. Mika / Darkstalkers with B.B. Hood, Morrigan, Lillith, Felicia, Hsien-Ko or Lei Lei depending on which name you prefer. Also there are more examples in all of those games as well as many others. However the problem is that there's only one or two genres where you'll be able to fully play as female characters (or in cases like Amane's, an effeminate male). Fighting games and puzzle games are the only genres that I can think of off the top of my head that feature female characters in a prominent role... and in one they're often oversexualized while in the other they're just eye candy you don't play as. On another note I don't think you'll ever find a female character over the age of 40 who looks and acts her age and if you do, then take note because it's quite rare.

The feminine characters are usually pushed aside in most games (Mario with Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toadette, Birdo / Sonic with Amy Rose, Cream, Rouge), given minimal to no characterization, and often times will receive an unwarranted amount of hate from the fandom. They're usually only playable in party and spin off titles. I feel like this follows the trend that "femininity is bad" that I see all the time, which upsets me greatly. I love these characters (Growing up for me, my idols were characters like Princess Peach and Cream the Rabbit while other kids looked up to characters like Mario or Sonic.) and would love to see them more developed and have more spotlight and a chance to shine... but they're always pushed into the roles of damsel in distress, exposition fairy, minor villain... basically an NPC. Even characters shown to be more capable like Princess Zelda are put into the damsel in distress role.

If a female character is given a main role, she either has to abandon a good amount of her visible femininity (Samus who you can't even tell is a girl while playing the game) or rely on it for sex appeal (Lara Croft, Samus without her power suit, Bayonetta). Also the examples in comparison to their male counterparts are so few and far in between. I'm not saying that these women haven't made a mark in gaming history or that female characters who aren't traditionally feminine are somehow undeserving of being playable/prominent. I'd just like to see more variety... if every genre had the variety of the fighting games I listed then I'd have a lot less to complain about.

I'm a little tired of video games being seen and treated as some sort of boys' club where I have to settle with the small amount of representation and rely on a small amount of genres and franchises to feel satisfied. Especially since I'm a paying customer just like anyone else. I wish that game developers would just show more consideration for others and design games for people, rather than just games for the average male. Games are largely made by men for men and I keep reading people complaining about the complaints of female gamers saying that if women want more games for them then they should start making games and stop complaining... but for a woman to even enter the field seems like an unnecessarily difficult task from what I've read... it all just seems unreasonable.

How about Lightning in FF? I don't really find her to be used for sex appeal, and she is also pretty bad ass to boot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xacual

I've personally always viewed that quote as saying, treat everyone online equally regardless of what you think their gender might be. It's served me well, though for some reason being nice to people and stuff got me mistaken as a girl quite a few times, especially in MMOs. Not entirely sure why.

My experience with girls over MMOs has been quite the terrible one due to maybe bad luck.
Once "confirmed" girl, they tend to attract a lot of attention. Some get used to the special treatment (always getting included in events - get attention, freebies), while I have met a few who are more logical... but that is not the end of the story...

If you chose to exclude them to stuff (such as raids in WoW) because of poor performance or attendance, their white knights will raise up and cause quite a bit of drama - this happen regardless of whether or not the said female has any intention of stirring anything up herself.

Some of the logical ones may also hide behind the "I am a girl" shield. Ie: "you only think I do poorly because I am a girl", or appeal via "there are more than one way to do something" when you try to tell them what they are doing in the MMO might not be... the most optimal... (when min/maxing is important in the MMO world). (Actually girls IRL can be like that too, but in actual work place performance and mistakes can be recorded to present a much more convincing case).

At the end of the day I get a lot of "you are an ass" or "you are very difficult to work with".

Sorry that I got off topic. Would like to see what girls think of the other responses in the thread, esp the "what kind of games do girls like/what would classify a game as a girl game".

My experience with girls over MMOs has been quite the terrible one due to maybe bad luck.
Once "confirmed" girl, they tend to attract a lot of attention. Some get used to the special treatment (always getting included in events - get attention, freebies), while I have met a few who are more logical... but that is not the end of the story...

If you chose to exclude them to stuff (such as raids in WoW) because of poor performance or attendance, their white knights will raise up and cause quite a bit of drama - this happen regardless of whether or not the said female has any intention of stirring anything up herself.

Some of the logical ones may also hide behind the "I am a girl" shield. Ie: "you only think I do poorly because I am a girl", or appeal via "there are more than one way to do something" when you try to tell them what they are doing in the MMO might not be... the most optimal... (when min/maxing is important in the MMO world). (Actually girls IRL can be like that too, but in actual work place performance and mistakes can be recorded to present a much more convincing case).

At the end of the day I get a lot of "you are an ass" or "you are very difficult to work with".

Sorry that I got off topic. Would like to see what girls think of the other responses in the thread, esp the "what kind of games do girls like/what would classify a game as a girl game".

I'm usually too shy to join any parties, but I heard of things like that. I'd be annoyed to get hit by some "white knight", though.

What bothers me the most is games that treat femininity in ridiculously bad manner. Games like Scarlet Blade exist only for the players to watch their character's boobs bounce (and they do when the character moves, it's hilarious). There's having an attractive protagonist, and there's forgetting women are not an alien race from another planet.

Oh, and of course there's the all "there're no girls on the internet" shit.

I don't see why everyone has to take up arms against queen's blade, I consider these types of views extreme, there is nothing wrong with having a game that is solely dedicated to showing T&A, the problem is that in games that DON'T do this females tend to fit into copy/paste roles that make them boring as hell and are often dressed in sexually pleasing ways. That and there are few female protagonist games, with even fewer dedicated to a female or neutral audience.

Many guys don't take up arms against Yaoi visual novels or typical romance novels like Twilight that portray men as some poetic yet badass yet soft-hearted yet tsundere yet hella tolerating type of guy and say that it's totally degrading toward men and that we're just empty-minded slaves who are borderline condemned for not having mind-reading powers, I mean Twilight is universally hated, but not for those reasons.